In the manufacture of many types of ballpoint pens and the like, it is necessary to assemble a multitude of relatively small and irregularly shaped parts that must be oriented relative to each other and fixed together in a final operation by screwing the barrel assembly into the cap assembly to hold the refill and spring assembly therebetween. To accomplish this procedure, the barrel assembly must be oriented and thereafter placed over the refill and spring assembly held in the inverted cap assembly. The predominant manner in which this procedure has been accomplished in the past is by hand alignment and placement of the barrel assembly onto the cap assembly. The present invention receives the barrel assemblies in bulk form, automatically orients and feeds these assemblies in single-file order and thereafter places them over the cap refill and spring assembly.